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Sunday, January 24, 2016

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our first meeting of 2016! We covered a lot of material and had a great discussion of our upcoming events for the year. If you were unable to join us, that's okay -- there's always next month! We will continue collecting dues via check or PayPal (modknoxville@gmail.com). We hope to see more new faces this year!

Our first order of business was to welcome our new officers:

Chair: Michelle Bolt

Special Events Coordinator: Melissa Everett

Education Coordinator: Jennifer Grace

Secretary: Elizabeth Rea

Treasurer: Christy Cooper

Many members took home Quilts of Valor blocks to turn into larger 24" QOV blocks due back at our March meeting and sew-in.

Next month we will welcome special guest Terri Ayers of Mountain Creek Quilt Shop in Greenback, TN. Terri will teach us about wool applique, and member Emily Doane has designed a modern mug rug for the tutorial. We would like to be adequately prepared with materials, so please sign up in advance if you'd like to participate in the workshop. The guild would like to offset a portion of the cost of this event, with participants paying a nominal fee (no more than $10). Please bring cash or check to the meeting to cover your portion of the cost. All materials will be provided. Please sign up using this form: February Wool Applique Workshop.

One final order of business from the meeting: Our budget was approved for 2016, but it may need some adjusting for our Quilt Show collaboration with Striped Light, details of which came about after the budget was created. This show will take place May 6-8. We will be sending out a signup sheet for this event soon! Please be on the lookout, and get those modern quilts finished! You can enter one regular sized quilt and one mini quilt. If we don't have enough participants, we will then open up the floor for more submissions.

Saturday, January 23, 2016

As we kick off a new year with the Knoxville Modern Quilt Guild, we want to review some of our best moments and accomplishments from the second half of 2015. Check out our Facebook group page for more photos, including loads of show and tell.

Lynn Rinehart visited our November meeting and gave an informative presentation on quilt appraisals.

We completed seven Stars for Stephanie quilts and donated them to chemotherapy treatment rooms at UT Hospital in memory of member Stephanie Hicks.

We completed two more quilts for The Restoration House of East Tennessee, our local charity project. These quilts are presented to single mothers and their children when they leave the organization's transitional housing and begin new lives of hope and promise.

We pulled together to create "Improv with Intent" blocks for our guild's submission to the Modern Quilt Guild's Quilt Con 2016 show.

In October, some of our group enjoyed a few days of sewing at the Whistlestop Quilt Retreat in Sweetwater, TN. The Whistlestop made us feel so welcome and comfy, and everyone had a great time starting new projects, making progress on WIPs, and even adding to the "finished" pile. We look forward to another great retreat at Whistlestop in 2016!

We were so happy to welcome designer Lizzy House to Knoxville in September. Lizzy's Meadow Quilt Workshop was amazing and drew quilters from not only here in Knoxville but also Nashville, St. Louis, and North Carolina, among other locations. Our Meadow Quilts are in various states of completion, and we look forward to seeing more finishes in 2016. Each one is so unique!

Finally, on the business side of things, we revised our bylaws and created a 5-person board to guide our development and activities in the coming year. The board positions are Chairman and Community Relations; Education Coordinator; Programming and Special Events Coordinator; Secretary and Communications Manager; and Treasurer.